Over 250 individuals gathered on a sunny afternoon in Taipei today to call for the release of detained human rights advocate Lee Ming-Che after a show trial held for Lee in China last week...
The defeat of a recent push by language and literature scholars to reform the teaching of Chinese in Taiwan has had surprising implications. Namely, despite the defeat of a push by the Association for Taiwan Literature to reduce the amount of classical Chinese currently taught in Taiwanese, this drew comment from high-ranking Chinese government officials including An Fengshan of the Taiwan Affairs Office. It seems, then, that the debate over the teaching of classical Chinese in Taiwan has become significant enough to draw attention from China...
With the announcement that the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China will take place in mid-October, speculation runs high about what this will mean for Taiwan...
Outrage broken out in Taiwan with the appearance of detained Taiwanese human rights advocate Lee Ming-Che in Chinese courts yesterday. Lee pled guilty to “subverting state power” and undermining the authority of the CCP in attempting to encourage multi-party in democracy. But what now for efforts to secure Lee's release?...
News of an arms deal between the US and Taiwan will no doubt prove reassuring to those who bank on America as Taiwan’s guarantor of its existing de facto independence from China. Nevertheless, in truth, skepticism is needed. This is merely indicative of a temporary extension of the US-Taiwan status quo, rather than affirming a stronger stance on behalf of Taiwan by the Trump administration...
Controversy has been provoked by comments from Tainan mayor William Lai stating that his views are for Taiwan to have relations “close to China, while loving Taiwan.” For Lai, previously known as a pro-independence firebrand, these comments are a notable step back from previous statements in which Lai avowed support of Taiwanese independence while traveling in China. Very likely Lai’s statement reflects several things...
Seeing as Latin America has long been a diplomatic battleground for Taiwan and China, with China hoping to poach Taiwan’s remaining diplomatic allies and Taiwan attempting to hang onto them, news of Panama deciding to break ties with Taiwan in favor of recognizing China should not be the most surprising. But are there any lessons we can take away from this?...
With the one year anniversary of Tsai Ing-Wen’s inauguration, we might take the opportunity to reflect on the successes and failures of the Tsai administration to date...
China's apparent lack of interest in recovering money stolen by Chinese fraud victims by Taiwanese criminals illustrates that cross-strait relations have apparently taken precedent over settling questions of justice for China. If the Tsai administration is smart, it will leverage on this fact...
The rejection of Chinese asylum seeker Zhang Xiangzhong’s application for asylum in Taiwan illustrates the Tsai administration’s unwillingness to rock the boat on cross-strait matters at present. This is likely indicative of a highly conservative impulse in the Tsai administration’s current attempts to maintain a stable relationship between Taiwan and China...
